Doing it Again: In Depth is a documentary about the sex lives of trans women, from the mouths of trans women themselves. Tobi Hill-Meyer needs your support to make this happen! She was the director for Doing it Ourselves, a groundbreaking film that won the Emerging Filmmaker Award at the 2010 Feminist Porn Awards.
By supporting this project, you help combat the negative representation of trans women in the media and the erasure of our sexualities. You will also get to see an insightful and erotic documentary once it’s completed! It’s a win-win.
Any amount helps. If you can’t show your support with money, that’s ok. Spread the word to your friends!
-
Shameless: The ART of Disability (2006)
Art and activism are the starting point for a funny and intimate portrait of five surprising individuals with diverse disabilities. Packed with humour and raw energy, this film follows the gang of five from B.C. to Nova Scotia as they create and present their own images of their disabilities.
-
» Difficult Love: Watch Zanele Muholi's Powerful Documentary on the South African LGBTQ Experience
We’ve talked about Zanele Muholi before. She’s a South African photographer and visual activist who uses her work to present her lived experience as a lesbian in South Africa. She uses photography, poetry, and video to record and express the violent complexity of being LGBTQI in South Africa. With few people willing to record and present queer black history in Africa, Muholi’s visual activism creates witnesses out of each of us.
CREDIT ANDERS SUNE BERG
Luckily, right now we can all enjoy some of Muholi’s work for free on IMDB. Her film Difficult Love is being streamed in full and for free. (Film trigger warning for discussion of rape and queerphobia.)
Directed by Muholi and Peter Golsmid, Difficult Love provides a glimpse into Muholi’s life and the lives, loves, and struggles of other black lesbians in South Africa. Muholi introduces us to a fraction of the stories and people that have moved her to create images that speak of something other than heterosexism, images that speak about us and the multitude of identities that a woman’s body can hold.
It is a powerful, at times difficult film to watch, but I’d recommend you watch the film soon, because Sistah Sinema and Elixher will be holding a live video chat about it with Muholi herself this Sunday, December 16th at 5pm PST/8pm EST. It’ll be broadcasting on YouTube, so keep an eye on Elixher’s Facebook page for the link to jump in. I know I’ll be doing a fair amount of Facebook watching that day.
Muholi is an inspiring figure that brings visibility to black queer identity in Africa in a manner that is self-aware and intentional in its rejection of the long imposed binaries resulting from colonialism. Check out more of her work and tune in on Sunday. Anyone who is interested in intersectionality, anti-colonialism, and just regular rattling of the cage of mainstream norms, this is for you.
-
» In the Tall Grass: Rwanda's Road to Redemption [FULL DOCUMENTARY]
TRIGGER WARNING: GENOCIDE, GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF MURDER
In the Tall Grass looks at the civilian justice system called Gacaca used by Rwandans to gain some measure of reconciliation and justice in the years since the 1994 genocide. In Rwanda perpetrators and victims of the genocide continue to live side-by-side, hampering the ability of many to heal. The documentary focuses on the Gacaca trial initiated by Joanita Mukarusnaga, whose husband and four children were killed during the genocide. Despite fearing for her own safety for agreeing to speak out at the trial, Joanita names her neighbor Butera as one of the leaders in the murder of her family. The judges that preside over the publicly-held trial are drawn from all members of Rwandan society - male and female, Tutsi and Hutu. After hearing conflicting stories, the judges struggle to make sense of what happened that April so many years ago and to bring to justice those who murdered Joanita’s family.
Given the subject matter, it should come as no surprise that the film contains numerous disturbing images of the genocide. The production value is extremely high. The DVD contains several extra features, including a lesson-plan, a photo gallery, a written statement by the director, and additional information on the history of Gacaca in Rwanda. This film is recommended for scholars interested in Rwanda, as well as for those interested in the truth and reconciliation process.
-
» When getting to Canada is a last chance
Paul-Émile d’Entremont calls himself a “child of Trudeau.” He’s been nourished on a diet of multiculturalism. For this reason the filmmaker and journalist is a little sad about the current government, which, he says, is throwing away Canada’s reputation as a place where anyone can make a fresh start as an immigrant – especially those who flee their home countries out of fear.
D’Entremont is the man behind Last Chance, a National Film Board documentary that follows the lives of five gay, lesbian and transgender individuals who come to Canada in search of new lives, free from persecution.
There is Trudi, a lesbian from Jamaica who was “correctively” raped at gunpoint. Zaki, who was thrown into an Egyptian jail. Carlos, who left his son behind in Colombia. Jennifer, a transgender woman who was institutionalized by her own family. And finally there is Alvaro, a gay man who sought refuge in Canada in a high-profile case covered extensively by Xtra.
D’Entremont says that while he has worked on documentaries in the past, creating Last Chance was the first time he took an advocacy approach to filmmaking. “I think gays in Canada, we’ve got work to do, but we have acquired a lot of rights. And I’ve noticed in the gay press that there are a lot of people looking outward now as to what is going on in the rest of the world. And I was doing the same thing,” he says.
Six years ago, d’Entremont met a group of activists in Montreal through HELEM, a Lebanon-based gay rights advocacy organization. He was inspired by the stories he heard of people who risked and lost so much to come to Canada. A few years later, he was shooting on the streets of Beirut with Jennifer, a young transgender woman who was looking to come to Canada.
But in the process of filming, d’Entremont was hedging his bets, documenting individuals who were waiting on visas. “The fascinating thing about documentaries is that it’s real life,” he says. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. When I went to Lebanon, I didn’t even know that Jennifer would get her visa. If she didn’t, I had no story.”
He says it was a risk worth taking. “This films starts in the country of origin, before the flight ‘home,’ before fleeing persecution,” he says. “To document that persecution, that was very difficult to do, because you had to find someone in their country who not only wants to come to Canada, but also who has the means of coming and had a good chance of getting a visa.”
Through the film d’Entremont underscores a problem many would-be queer refugees face: because Canada has a strong record of allowing refugees into the country, it is difficult to obtain visas that allow individuals to come here. “When you apply, they want to know that you have a stable income in your home country and that you’re not going to Canada for economic reasons,” d’Entremont says. “It also helps if you have family connections, such as a wife, kid, which frequently gays and lesbians may not have.”
But the problems don’t end there. Once they arrive in Canada, applicants looking for refugee status have to prove that they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
Although Canada was one of the first countries to view persecution based on sexual orientation as a reason to grant refugee status, there are still cracks in the system. D’Entremont says lawyers often get their clients to supply letters, emails, perhaps even love letters to present at their hearings. “They can even get someone to testify and say, ‘Yes, I have slept with this person,’ ‘Yes, this is my partner, I am in love with them.’ Those are ways that you establish sexual orientation.”
But proving sexual orientation is not easy for people who have spent their lives trying to hide it.Refugee adjudicators have also been accused of relying on stereotypes, and d’Entremont mentions stories of people who were rejected, told that “this man doesn’t look gay, or this man has big hands and a masculine demeanour, stuff like that.”
Looking at Canada’s problems on this front, d’Entremont sees a country and a system that is failing the people who risk everything to access it. He wants to see changes to that system, as well as changes in how the people who use it are perceived. “When I found these people I was inspired by them, by the fact that they were willing to leave everything,” he says. “I mean, a lot of people say, ‘Of course they want to come to Canada,’ but let me tell you it’s not that easy to give up everything. Everything. And to start again. I am inspired by how grateful these people are to be in Canada and how hard they worked to integrate. I hope my film will offer a different point of view than what is the prevailing attitude towards immigrants and refugees that is very widespread in Canada, that they are just slackers taking advantage of the system.”
-
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIVINE!
There are just 12 HOURS left to donate to her definitive documentary I Am Divine and get your name in the credits for just TEN BUCKS (or more)! — Admin
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iamdivine/i-am-divine-wants-money -
» Current TV: Rape on the Reservation [TW: Rape, Sexual Assault, Child Molestation]
The url above links to Current TV’s segment about the epidemic numbers of rapes that occur. According to Current TV, 1 in 3 Native Americans (regardless of sex, apparently) will be a victim of some type of sexual assault.
This video is to bring to light how sexualizing us, indigenous people, harms us in numerous ways while we are hurting at home.
This is a must see.
-
Tongues Untied (1989)
When I first reblogged this, I didn’t know it was the full movie!
If you haven’t already - see this. It will never not be relevant.
Absolutely a must see.
-
Help produce this important feature-length documentary and raise awareness of trichotillomania!
Here is the link for the kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1024153773/trichster
THE STORY
A trichster is a term that some people with trichotillomania call themselves. In our case,Trichster is a film that will examine the little-known disorder trichotillomania through the eyes of those who have it. Over the course of the next year, we will follow a small group of trichsters to experience what living with trich is like on a daily basis.
We will travel across the country and attend retreats, conferences, and support groups with our case studies to try and gain an in-depth and personal perspective on the disorder.
-
» Pulp friction
If you haven’t seen it before, Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives is a 1992 Canadian documentary by Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman that traces a connection between lesbian pulp fiction of the 1940s and ’50s and stories about real-life lesbians living in the time period. It’s a critically acclaimed film as well as an important historical document, but it’s also in danger of disappearing forever. Enter the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, whose exhibit Public Sins/Private Desires: Tracing Lesbian Lives in the Archives, 1950–1980 opened on June 22.
“The show started because Lynne Fernie went to one of our archivists,” explains Karen Stanworth, a York University professor and the exhibit’s curator, “and said it was the 20th anniversary of Forbidden Love this year and was there something the archives could do to help bring attention to the documentary? Because it only exists on VHS, and she wants to get it made into a DVD, but in order to do that, she has to get the NFB to renew all the music permissions, which will cost $20,000. So, there has to be a demonstration of interest in this material.”
The exhibit celebrates lesbian pulp fiction, which has had a renaissance in recent years.
To help drum up this interest, Stanworth and CLGA have assembled a huge amount of material, including cover art and excerpts from vintage lesbian pulp fiction, production photos and ephemera from Forbidden Love, and newly collected oral testimonies from Toronto lesbians. Stanworth helped to organize “a pre-event with some of the ‘older’ lesbians that we knew,” where the CLGA recorded the women’s stories. “They talk about going to the Parkside and the Fly by Night and the Bluebird and all these bars that were temporary, dingy and literally fly-by-night.”
Beyond being a remember-when for the older crowd, Stanworth insists the stories will be of interest to younger generations: “When we have young people listening to these stories, they’re like, ‘Wow! Oh, my god! It’s such an eye-opener!” For those who’ve grown up in a post-gay-rights world, it might be hard to imagine a time when your sexuality could make you an outlaw and being out at work was impossible. And while many of the testimonies are harrowing and traumatic, there are aspects of the world these women lived in that we could probably learn something from today.
“Many of these women had relationships with gay men, of varying sorts,” Stanworth says. “Their lives were much more intertwined than we often think of them now. They would go to bars with each other so they could dance with their girlfriends and boyfriends. But then they’d sit down at the table with two guys and two girls, so if there was a raid, they were safe.”
One of the most iconic aspects of Forbidden Love is its use of lesbian pulp fiction, a kitschy aesthetic that has had a renaissance in recent years, and Stanworth has made an effort to explore its contradictions. For one thing, the lurid covers often had nothing to do with the stories inside. “The artists didn’t necessarily read the books,” she explains. “They were just trying to sell novels.” Although originally conceived for a straight male audience, many lesbians turned to them because “it was the only place they could read about lesbian love.”
Public Sins/Private Desires sets out to shine a light on what homosexuality meant for a woman’s life in the not-so-distant past and, of course, to celebrate everything Forbidden Love achieved. “This is an important document in lesbian history, in Canadian history, and in sexuality studies across the board.” Let’s hope it finally gets that DVD release.Public Sins/Private Desires: Tracing Lesbian Lives in the Archives, 1950–1980
Runs till Mon, Aug 6 in Toronto
Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives
34 Isabella St
clga.ca -
